Going wirelesss!

[Scottish_Maleficent]

Well tomorrow I'm going wireless!!!! Changing over to a wireless connection. Home networking I think BT call it!!!! Anyone using wireless at home at present? Better? We have a 1mb connection at the mo.
I feel my PC is so S-L-O-W due to the McAfee firewall software - so my brother suggested we go wireless, using a hardware firewall.
All a bit of a hassle though - need to clean my hard drive and have a bit of a clean out - got a fair bit of junk files here, and I'm still using Windows 98 !!!! (I'm resistant to change...........!!)

Oh bring back Windows 3.1!!!!

 

[AndRu]

I'd stay on the safe side and use a hardware AND software firewall, especially if you're using a wireless network. I'd never have a wireless network in my house as ...

a) I don't trust them (yet)
b) I spent too many hours carefully routing cables that I'd cry if they weren't being used!

And get yourself updated to WindowsXP - far faster and more reliable than W98 - but you'll need a meaty PC to run it on, that's the downside.

Whatever, good luck!

 

[Goofyish]

I'm no expert, but I know a guy at work who has a number of PCs connected with a wireless network. He has an old PC in his garage connected to the internet that acts as the main server. The other PCs in the house access the internet through this PC.

He says it works very well, and he can use his laptop to access the internet anywere in the house. Like all things computing - it sound simple in practice, but if something doesn't work or is not compatible it can be a real pain trying to get it working

 

[squitty]

We have a wireless connection it was so easy to set up, but I have got Windows XP.

No problems, saves all the wires all over the place.

 

[magicmouse2]

We have wireless too. Means you can Dis from the garden in the summer. Bt do an antivirus/firewall package for £3.50 per month.

 

[AlanUK]

We have been using a wirless connection for nearly 2 years now and there is no way I would change back to using Cat 5e or Cat 6 cabling around the house

The convenience is amazing, DW and I both have laptops so we can just move around room to room as we please without the need to reboot, and into the garden in the summer as has already been pointed out.

As far as security goes I have set up the network with a firewall and the default for most home connections will also be to use Network Address Translation (or NAT) to manage the IP Adressing which should also help to stop anything nasty breaking into the network. I also run a software firewall on the laptops as an extra precaution as well as up to date anti virus software.

The wireless side of things is secured by having a resticted MAC address list on the access point which means that only authorised wireless devices are able to connect on to the network. I am also ruinning 128 bit WEP encryption for the data traffic transmitted.

I feel I have most of the security issues associated with the internet and wireless networks covered really

I would thouroughly recommend the convenience of wireless networking to anyone provided that you take the time to apply some basic security protocols.

Sorry for all the technical jargon

Alan.

 

[peter r]

I'd be interested to hear if changing to a hardware firewall makes much of a noticeable speed difference as your brother suggests because I hadn't thought of that.

Let us know please.
Peter

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

We have wireless too. Means you can Dis from the garden in the summer

Now that I DO like the sound of!!!!

 

[jockey]

We too have the wireless networking and it's brill. My main concern was security too - I was worried neighbours etc could log on! As Alan UK suggests - it's secured using a restricted mac address etc and some sort of encryption!! It's a bit too technical for me so I leave that side of thinks to DH!!!!

 

[Tron[ADS]]

The wireless side of things is secured by having a resticted MAC address list on the access point which means that only authorised wireless devices are able to connect on to the network. I am also ruinning 128 bit WEP encryption for the data traffic transmitted.
Alan.

Ive just ordered myself a laptop, so will be switching on the wireless side of my router in due course...

However, given there is freely available software out there that can be run from a laptop in a car outside my house, that can crack the 128bit encryption and then spoof an authorised mac address within 2 hours, I am not switching it on comfortably and without worry.

 

[Cochise]

Look outside your window Dave, and Chardo will be waving with his spoof authorised mac address that he did within 2 hours even though he can work Quickpar yet!! hehehe

And where do your gorgeous two bairns get the curly hair from ?

 

[tartangirl]

We've just upgraded to a wireless connection as I wanted a second PC so that I could actually get on the PC due to DS hogging the internet. We went wireless purely as I didn't know where I wanted the other PC and DH didn't want to run wires around the house.

My PC is still connected by a cable although now it goes Modem -> wireless router -> PC and to tell the truth I dont notice any difference.

The other PC is at the other end of the house and it runs as fast as my one. We did go for the new 108 Mbps wireless connection and given my internet is only 1Mbps it's not surprising it's the same speed.

The guy who put it in talked lots about closing ports and said it was very secure - I didn't understand what he was talking about but he seemed to know what he was talking about.

 

[AlanUK]

However, given there is freely available software out there that can be run from a laptop in a car outside my house, that can crack the 128bit encryption and then spoof an authorised mac address within 2 hours, I am not switching it on comfortably and without worry.

I would be worried too if someone was sitting outside my house doing this. Have you tried asking them to move on Tron???? LOL

 

[Tron[ADS]]

I would be worried too if someone was sitting outside my house doing this. Have you tried asking them to move on Tron???? LOL

Hehe, its a friend of mine, who's vowed to have a go at cracking it (just for fun)....he's into things like that.
Ive just been speaking to him, he reckons the software will now do it in 30 mins....but he does only have 11b on his laptop, so at least I am safe for a while (ive ordered an 11g for my laptop, and can disable backwards compatability on the router).
He did say that it can only operate whilst traffic is moving though, so given that my other 2 pc's are wired to the router, its going to be pretty infrequent that the laptop is in use.
But, I am turning off all file sharing just to be safe, then at least all he could do would be to go onto the net (i hope).